yellow rowan and a plum

[blueadzuki]

Hi all,

Givne the amount of enthudsiasm eveyone seems to be showing for the seeds of golden-pera (the atatolian seller) I thought the time had come for me to give a few of his things a try. I have looked over hist catalouge and have selected two items that sound interesting. However before I "click the button" I decide that it might be prudent to check with everyone else in the forum, to see if anyone else had tried either, what their opion of them was, and whether there were any warning I should take like the trees have no cold tolerance (I'm 6b but I have no idea what zone Anatolia is in) .

The first thing that caught my eye is a tree fruit referred to as a Yellow Rowan Berry tree
(http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-ANTOLIAN-YELLOW-ROWANBERRY-UVEZ-TREE-5-SEEDS-/280495471910?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item414ed53d26)
Based on the picture I think this may be a kind of Service tree/Sorb apple but I am not sure
The second is referred to as a misty wild plum. cgi.ebay.com/RARE-ANATOLIAN-WILD-MISTY-PLUM-TREE-5-SEED-/280495471888?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item414ed53d10

so anyone have any experiance with either of these

[grunt]

RowanBerry is also known as mountain ash in North America, and does quite well here. The lowest temperature I've seen here is about -25C, or -13F. If you are thinking or starting them from seed, make sure to nick the seeds well before you start. They seem to need a trip through the stomach of a bird before they will germinate. I don't know if the yellow is more tender than the red.

[Hristo]

The "Yellow Rowan Berry" should be yellow form of Sorbus domestica (that is interesting)

The plum looks exactly like yellow Prunus cerasifera - small fruited, later ripening (looking the photo I see few yellow leaves, so probably this is autumn made photo => late form). This fruit is so common here (do not like it much), so the price looks to me.... no comment
But looking at the bark there is a small chance to be P. domestica or even P. spinosa, but I have never seen yellow-fruited spinosa also it looks large for spinosa. After all I bet on P. cerasifera.

He offers some interesting seeds, unfortunately it's obvious that he is not even an amateur gardener, probably just a (smart) trader.

[blueadzuki]

Apr 26, 2010 11:50:11 GMT -5 Hristo said:

The "Yellow Rowan Berry" should be yellow form of Sorbus domestica (that is interesting)

He offers some interesting seeds, unfortunately it's obvious that he is not even an amateur gardener, probably just a (smart) trader.

Hmm.... so that kind of plum tastes lousy. Maybe I be better off with the green bursa (http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-ANATOLIAN-GREEN-BURSA-PLUM-TREE-5-SEED-/280497851669?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item414ef98d15), after all I do like old english greengages.........

Yes he does have a lot of odd stuff. and yes he does appear to have little, if any gardening training (I note that he does not ahve anything to say about any of the seeds just the same tagline on each aution that conveys little to no actual information.) No species names either so I'm stabbing in the dark in most cases. but there are a few odd things like cgi.ebay.com/RARE-ANATOLIAN-TRABZON-HURMA-TREE-5-SEED-/280436463350?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item414b50d6f6
(I think this is some sort of persimmon). I also note the bay tree seeds cgi.ebay.com/RARE-ANTOLIAN-DAPHNE-LAURUS-NOBILIS-TREE-20-SEEDS-/280491531637?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item414e991d75 are also of some interest, for th eprice if no other reason (bay tree stones, when they are available from the houseplant/tropical seed market are usally on the order of $2-3 for 4-5 stones, $5 for 20 seems like rock bottom. Though I seem to recally bay stones being recalcitrant (maybe that's why they're so cheap, it's off season and thiey already largely non-viable)

[Hristo]

Yes, if the yellow one is cerasifera I would not recommend it. Most yellow forms are sweet, but not very flavorful (on the insipid side).
This green plum most probably is Green Gage. Here it is called Zelena Rencloda (Green Renclod). This variety is VERY old and is grown all around Europe. If I remember rightly what I read some time ago this variety is mentioned in old Greek or Roman texts (so for sure it's not english variety). During all these year it have been grown often from seeds, so there are many variants. I read it breeds quite true from seed.

Hurma = Persimmon. Because it's quite small fruited I thought it could be D. lotus. But according to this site: www.yenimakale.com/bitkiler/2595-trabzon-hurmasi.html it should be D. kaki ( it's quite small).

[grunt]

blueadzuki: I can give you greengage pits this fall, if you would like.

[blueadzuki]

Apr 26, 2010 15:04:52 GMT -5 grunt said:

blueadzuki: I can give you greengage pits this fall, if you would like.

Thank's grunt but, as it happens I already have quite a lot of Greengage pits I was just looking for a quick switch once hrstio reccomended agaisnt the plum. In all probability I get the yellow rowan , and the yellow rowan alone, it is when I am honest with myself really all I have room for.

Oh an hrstio I am aware that greengages are in fact older than England, I just fell into the trap of using my own personal terminology in a public forum. In the part of the country where I live many fruit sellers have gotten into the bad habit of assuming that "greengage" refers to any green fleshed plum regardless of its size, shape, firmness or taste. So I got into the habit of thinking of the "true" green gages (the very small fruite round ones with the thick skins aka the "Reine Claude" (probable origin of the name around you) to distinguish it (when others were going out and were going to buy plums for me, from the "modern" greengages (usally fairly hard green plums of the Japanese pointed end type) I just forgot myself for a moment.

[blueadzuki]

Okay my yellow rowan seed arrived in todays post. I'm not sure about nicking them, they feel sorta soft for that (kinda like apple seeds) maybe theyre different kinds of rowan. my question now is can I start them now, or are they going to need a winters chill to grow?

[Hristo]

Yes, they need stratification. If the seeds are only 5-6, then my advice would be to sow them in pot(s) and keep the pots outdoor. That way if they are viable, they will germinate next spring. The artificial stratification often gives worse results than the formula: patience + the mother nature way.

[blueadzuki]

thank you!